New Laws to Protect Tenants from Eviction

Approximately 88% of tenants say they are unaware of a new law introduced on 1st October 2015 that is intended to protect them from so called retaliatory or revenge evictions, according to findings from leading landlord association*.

The new law, introduced as part of the Deregulation Act, will prevent landlords from ending a tenancy using a section 21 or ‘no fault’ notice if they fail to address a complaint about the state of repair of the property that is made by their tenant to the local authority.

The NLA is calling on local councils to provide a clear framework for how they plan to deal with complaints in order to ensure that legitimate ones are taken seriously and that spurious ones don’t unnecessarily prolong the possession process.

“These kinds of evictions are extremely rare but we have to make sure that complaints by tenants don’t just get lost in the system, regardless of whether they’re legitimate or not.

“The majority of landlords only choose to end a tenancy if it’s absolutely necessary, so we have to make sure that the system isn’t abused by those simply trying to prolong the evictions process.

“We all know that local councils are under-resourced but housing problems must take priority. If a tenant complains about a potentially hazardous issue then both they and their landlord should have a clear expectation of how and when the council will deal with it.

“If a council fails to act on complaints then it will undermine the law and tenants’ confidence in a system that’s supposed to protect them”.

The research, which also asked tenants why their last tenancy came to an end, found that:

Just 9% of tenants feel they were asked to leave a private rented property after asking for repairs or maintenance to be carried out